“How many days will Guodong stay this time?”

“Guodong’s timing is impeccable. He came back just in time for an important village matter.”

Lin Guodong, being the most promising person in the village, received enthusiastic greetings from everyone as soon as he stepped out.

Both he and his wife were well-known figures in the village, though in the eyes of others, it was the best matched with the worst.

Lin Guodong nodded in acknowledgment to each greeting.

“As soon as Guodong steps out, his wife follows him out. She’s really sticking close to you. Is she afraid you’ll be taken away?” someone joked.

But this joke didn’t please anyone.

Ning Shu rolled her eyes. “Didn’t the village chief say everyone should gather in front of the village committee courtyard at eight o’clock?”

Then another person chimed in, “Guodong’s wife, you’re so obedient now. We never see you obediently going to work.”

This person was from the same generation as Lin’s mother. It sounded like casual chat, but it was clear there was ill intention behind it.

Wasn’t this person trying to sow discord between the couple?

Others around chuckled but said nothing, waiting to see the drama unfold.

A glint of coldness flashed in Lin Guodong’s eyes.

Indeed, even family members would instigate children to say such things, so how could others not do the same? “It’s me who doesn’t allow Ning Shu to work. She already has a hard time taking care of three children on her own. If she works, she won’t be able to look after them.”

Hearing his words, everyone turned to look at him, even Ning Shu.

She had been about to retort to the person’s comment, but since Lin Guodong spoke up, she held back.

She smiled at Lin Guodong. “There’s no choice. My husband pampers me.”

Hearing this, a third of the women around were infuriated.

“Yeah, my mom’s husband pampers my mom,” Er Bao, holding his mother’s hand, was his mother’s faithful little supporter.

Yi Bao wanted to imitate his mother, giving his silly younger brother an eye roll.

He had seen his mother roll her eyes just now. But he restrained himself. “My mom usually cooks and does laundry for us three brothers. She’s very tired and it’s hard for her…”

“Yi Bao…” Ning Shu interrupted him, “You are truly mommy’s precious treasure.” She was truly afraid Yi Bao might mention how tired she was.

Just the thought made her quickly lean in and whisper softly in Yi Bao’s ear, “Yi Bao, we can’t let others know about mommy’s bleeding. They might tease mommy for being useless, understand?”

Yi Bao didn’t want mommy to be teased by others, so he nodded immediately and stopped speaking.

At this moment, someone asked Er Bao, “Er Bao, who is your mommy’s man?”

Though it was meant as a playful follow-up to the previous topic, asking a five-year-old child this question could lead to an awkward situation if the child didn’t respond well.

“Mommy’s man is him, of course,” Er Bao pointed to his dad. He wasn’t a little kid who didn’t understand such things. “Uncle, you’re all grown-ups, how come you don’t know this?”

Chuckles erupted from the crowd. Someone chimed in, “Exactly, Er Bao is really smart.”

“You’re older than Er Bao, but not as smart.”

Lin Guodong smiled and ruffled Er Bao’s hair. “Very clever.”

Er Bao heard his dad’s praise and was momentarily stunned, then his mouth visibly widened into a silly grin.

Seeing Lin Guodong defend Ning Shu like this, no one felt like making jokes anymore. After all, they didn’t want to offend Lin Guodong.

When Ning Shu’s family of five arrived at the village committee courtyard, they saw the familiar faces.

“Third Son, Daughter-in-law , over here!” Lin’s mother had been keeping an eye out for incoming people, and upon seeing her son and daughter-in-law, she called out loudly.

People in the countryside generally had loud voices, but Lin’s mother’s voice wasn’t usually that loud.

It was probably because Lin Guodong had returned and she was happy, so her voice was louder than usual.

Lin Guodong and Ning Shu naturally walked over there.

“Yi Bao, Er Bao, San Bao…” Lin Haicai ran towards them.

“Haicai…” the Three Brothera also ran towards him.

Soon, the children formed a group and began whispering to each other.

“Third Brother,” Lin Guofeng hadn’t had a chance to talk properly with his younger brother since he returned.

Now that they met, they exchanged some casual words.

Being naturally reserved, Lin Guofeng didn’t know what else to say, so the conversation was limited to a few sentences.

Lin Guoliang also joined them.

“How long are you staying this time?” Lin Guofeng asked.

“Until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month,” Lin Guodong replied.

Qian Aifen also started chatting with Ning Shu. “The village meeting was so sudden, I wonder what’s going on.”

It was Ning Shu’s first encounter with Qian Aifen since regaining her memory, and her emotions were complex.

After all, Haicai’s legs were disabled because of saving San Bao, and as a mother, she couldn’t blame their family for implicating Yi Bao and Er Bao.

She had no words to say. Despite her hatred, she never had the chance to approach Yi Bao and Er Bao, let alone harm them, after Lin Guodong took them away to the army.

But it was impossible for Ning Shu to treat Qian Aifen as she did before without any barriers.

People have their biases, and her heart leaned towards her own son.

After all, in that incident, their family was the real victim. Before Lin Guodong took Yi Bao and Er Bao away, they also suffered from brief verbal abuse.

“I don’t know.” Though she had some resentment towards Qian Aifen, she kept it to herself, not showing it on the surface.

Qian Aifen was already used to Ning Shu’s indifferent attitude.

Ning Shu had always been like this, so she didn’t realize Ning Shu’s coldness.

They continued chatting, with Qian Aifen mentioning casually, “Do you know, the Lin Xiaoshan family is splitting up.”

She spoke lightly, unaware if anyone nearby heard her.

“Ah?” Ning Shu was taken aback.

She couldn’t help but ask, “Are they splitting up?”

She had mentioned splitting up with Lin Xiaoshan the day before her period, and it had been three days since then without any news.

Moreover, she was in the hospital for those two days, so she had no idea about this.

She didn’t expect this to come up now. “Why are they suddenly talking about splitting up?” she asked, pretending not to understand.

Qian Aifen explained, “It’s because Xiaoshan’s mother got sick. It’s said that her illness is quite serious, and although she has been discharged from the hospital, she can no longer work in the future. With Xiaoshan’s mother unable to work, their family of three can’t earn work points for the others to eat. So they are talking about splitting up. But Xiaoshan’s family doesn’t want to split up, otherwise the three of them won’t be able to earn any work points and they’ll starve, right?”

Ning Shu knew Lin Xiaoshan was smart, so in this situation, his grandmother might offer some benefits to make them agree to the split.

Zhang Qinfang chimed in, “So getting sick means they can split up? Isn’t that good? Which daughter-in-law wouldn’t want to split up?”

Qian Aifen didn’t dare to say such things, especially with Lin’s mother present.

Lin’s mother glanced at Zhang Qinfang but didn’t say anything.

The second daughter-in-law’s mouth was always sharp, but she hadn’t caused any trouble.

Moreover, she worked hard. However, Lin’s mother also had some concerns.

She worried that after the Lin family split up, the three granddaughters wouldn’t have a good time under the second daughter-in-law’s care.

So it would be better to wait until the granddaughters graduated from elementary school before splitting up.

With an elementary school diploma, they would have better prospects.

As for junior high and high school, they would have to rely on their own abilities.

But if they passed the exams and the second daughter-in-law didn’t let them continue their studies, even if the family split up, she would have to intervene.

If they wanted to have a better future, they had to study.

The third child was sent away to study, and even if the third daughter-in-law and their children went to the countryside, they could still take the worker exams.

So she didn’t think studying was useless.

Zhang Qinfang shrank her neck, and under Lin’s mother’s gaze, she reluctantly said, “I wasn’t talking about our family. Our family is doing well, and I definitely don’t want to split up.”

“Prospects.” Lin’s mother no longer paid attention to her.

“Dear fellow villagers…” Chief Lin Hongfa came with a megaphone, standing at the forefront and beginning his impassioned speech. “While it’s the agricultural off-season and the Lunar New Year is approaching, I want to talk to you all about something. A few days ago, I heard about a tragic incident in another village where a mischievous child fell into the river and drowned. That family had only one child, and with the child’s death, the family fell apart. It made me realize that we also have rivers and streams in our village, and there are families with only one child. Therefore, I’ve decided to fence off our village’s rivers and streams with wooden barriers…”

It must be said that no matter how high-ranking an official is, officials are political beings.

Chief Lin’s speech instantly resonated with everyone present. By starting with the tragic tale of a family losing their only child, he struck a chord with those families who cherished their grandchildren dearly.

The mere thought of something happening to their grandchildren frightened them to the core.

So when the village chief proposed to fence off the rivers and streams, there was unanimous agreement.

Although some thought it was making a fuss over nothing, fencing off the rivers and streams wasn’t a difficult task.

Therefore, there was no opposition. However, someone asked, “Chief, will we still receive work points for this? If not, we might as well go to work.”

“Right, we can’t lose out on work points.” Their children were grown up, so whether the rivers and streams were fenced off didn’t affect them much.

Chief Lin reassured them, “Don’t worry, you’ll receive work points as if you were working. So today, the work will be divided into two teams: the women will continue working, while the men will accompany me to cut trees and make wooden barriers.” This was the decision reached by the village leaders. “Also, our village’s river is connected to Xujia Village’s river. We only need to fence it off to the boundary between the two villages.”

The boundary between the two villages had long been marked because there were fish in the river.

So before the New Year, people from both villages would go to the river to catch fish. Therefore, the boundary had been marked for a long time.

As the village assembly came to an end, everyone prepared to start working. But at this moment, Lin Xiaoshan’s wife came to the brigade leade: ” Leader, our family has no way out. Since I came out of the hospital, I can’t work anymore. My in-laws want to take advantage of this to separate us. But once we’re separated, how will the three of us survive? Please, Captain, help us.”

Lin Xiaoshan knelt down in front of the brigade leader with a thud: “Leader, please help us. My mother used to earn a lot of work points for the family. They can’t abandon us just because my mother can’t earn work points anymore. Sob, sob, sob…”

“Leader, sob, sob, sob…” Lin Xiaoshi followed his brother and knelt down.

He didn’t know what to say, so he just cried.

This sudden incident made everyone who was about to leave stop in their tracks and start gossiping.

Ning Shu was one of them, finding the gossip more interesting than leaving.

Lin Guodong naturally had no interest in such matters. He was about to ask Ning Shu to leave when he saw her eyes shining as she stared over there.

Lin Guodong: “…”

He pulled Ning Shu’s sleeve, “Ning Shu…”

Ning Shu looked at him, “You go ahead, I’ll come back later.”

“Guodong, I’m heading to the county town. Keep an eye on the kids.”

He was really afraid she’d get too engrossed in the drama and forget about the children altogether.

Ning Shu nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

As for the situation with the Lin family, Yibao and Erbao were even more enthusiastic than him.

They were simply curious, and because they had a good relationship with the Xiaoshan brothers, they were quite concerned about them.

Lin Guodong knew that the children would be fine in the village, so he didn’t say much more.

But he was going to say goodbye to the two kids, only to see that they had already squeezed their way to the front of the crowd with Sanbao.

Lin Guodong: “…”

He had no choice but to leave by himself.

“You unfilial thing! How dare you come here to complain in front of brigade Leader! Do you have any conscience?” Grandma Lin Xiaoshan rushed over.

“Even if you used to earn work points, don’t you three still need to eat? Can Xiaoshan and Xiaoshi earn work points?”

Lin Xiaoshan tried to defend himself. “Grandma, although I haven’t started earning work points yet, I’m the one who feeds the chickens at home and gathers the grass for the pigs.”

“Plus me!” Lin Xiaoshi chimed in. “I helped my brother.”

“Really!” Erbao muttered. “When I went to catch bugs to feed our chickens, I even saw Xiaoshan and Xiaoshi.”

“Can you eat pig feed?” Grandma Lin Xiaoshan scolded. “You two little ones have no conscience. Have you forgotten who fed you when your father had just left and you couldn’t work in the fields yet? Now you still want to be a burden to the family?”

“Are you trying to force me to death, Mother?” Lin Xiaoshan’s mother suddenly stood up. “If that’s the case, then I might as well die. Our whole family might as well die…”

As she spoke, she rushed towards the wall of the village committee courtyard.

“Mother, don’t die. Sob, sob, sob…” Lin Xiaoshan cried bitterly.

“Stop her! Quickly stop her!” Brigade Leader shouted.

At this moment, the villagers hadn’t dispersed, so they easily stopped Lin Xiaoshan’s mother.

The Brigade Leader breathed a sigh of relief. “Alright, all of you, go to work. Xiaoshan’s wife, don’t seek death, and Grandma Lin Xiaoshan, keep quiet. Both of you, go inside.”

Seeing that the villagers still hadn’t moved, the Leader raised his voice. “If you don’t want work points anymore, is that it? Zhenzhong, write down the names for work point deductions.”

At the mention of work point deductions, everyone immediately scattered.

Ning Shu wasn’t afraid of losing work points since she didn’t have any to lose anyway.

But she didn’t have the audacity to follow them inside to watch, so she had to leave.

Before leaving, she greeted the three brothers: “Yibao, Erbao, Sanbao, I’m going home. Are you all going home too?”

“Mom, we want to play outside for a while,” Yibao said.

Ning Shu didn’t force them either. “Alright, you can play, but no going near the water, understood?”

“Got it,” Yibao replied.

Back home, Ning Shu remembered the ten kilograms of cotton she had brought from the clothing factory.

She planned to use two kilograms to make little vests for the three brothers and the remaining eight kilograms to make a big blanket for them.

The bedsheet they had was made by herself five years ago when the house was built.

At that time, she had thought about neglecting them in the future, so she wanted to prepare as much as possible before they were born.

However, she didn’t know how to make a blanket, and she didn’t know anyone who could.

The previous blankets were ordered by her, but Lin’s mother had them made.

Thinking about this, Ning Shu decided to ask Lin’s mother at noon.

First, she separated the ten kilograms of cotton, roughly taking out two kilograms and repackaging the remaining eight kilograms.

Then she counted her fabric coupons again; it should be enough to make three vests.

“Guodong’s wife… Guodong’s wife, are you there?” Someone called her from outside.

Ning Shu stepped out of the house. “What brings you here, Auntie?” It was the brigade leader’s wife.

The captain’s wife said urgently, “Could you come with me to Xiaoshan’s house? They are dividing the property, and Xiaoshan’s grandmother insists that Xiaoshan stole 20 yuan from her and that it should be deducted from the money they are dividing. But Xiaoshan says that the money was borrowed from you, not stolen, so we need you to come and clarify the situation.”